That Marcelo Bielsa is "crazy" is already known. That his return to South American football will give him a leap of quality to the competitions of national teams is an affirmation that can be verified by the performance of his team and also by the interest generated by the coach from the discursive. In Montevideo, the landing of the Argentine coach is lived with moderate enthusiasm, which is no small thing.
Bielsa arrived in Uruguay and the spotlight of the sports press is on his movements. He landed in Carrasco on Sunday, failed to notify Uruguayan Football Association officials, and traveled on a bus to meet with his new employers. "Hello, I'm Marcelo Bielsa," he showed up at the door of the Complejo Celeste, the home of the Uruguayan soccer team.
On Monday he toured the AUF premises (in Canelones, their Ezeiza) accompanied by Ignacio Alonso, president of the Association, and Jorge Giordano (former coach, current manager of national teams of the AUF). He was seen energetic, wearing a gray short-sleeved T-shirt under a vest. Sneakers and jogging, a classic of the coach born 67 years ago (he will turn one more on July 21) in Rosario, province of Santa Fe.
Free stone for Bielsa in "Complejo Celeste", the training ground of the Uruguayan National Team. He is accompanied by Ignacio Alonso and Jorge Giordano, from the AUF.
In a video -furtive- of Bielsa's tour of the Celeste Complex you can see him giving indications to the two highest managers of the Uruguayan Association. He points, looks, speaks with gestures; He takes one of those inflatable dolls that serve as rival-cones in practice from the ground and shakes it: it lacks air and leaves it on the grass. He seems like a curmudgeon, but everyone agrees that he left satisfied. The property is a luxury and lives up to the expectations of the Fool.
This Tuesday he went again to observe the friendly of the Uruguayan under-20 team led by Marcelo Broli. It was a 2-2 draw against Defensor Sporting and the last test before the World Cup to be played in Argentina. "Marcelo has decided to manage the U23 team," Nacho Alonso confirms to Clarín. If he manages to qualify, Bielsa will lead Uruguay in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, before he will do it in the Pre-Olympic Games in Venezuela.
Federico Valverde and Rodrigo Bentancur, figures of Uruguay to come. Photo: EFE/ Matilde Campodónico.
The expectation is enormous. And the challenge too. Uruguay comes from being eliminated in the first round of the World Cup in Qatar. After the process of Maestro Tabárez, it was Diego Alonso who led La Celeste to the World Cup. But the results did not accompany and the triumph in the last date against Ghana was insufficient and scandalous by the protests of the players dressed in blue against the German referee Daniel Siebert, because they considered that he should charge penalty in a play in which Edinson Cavani landed in the area. One more goal would have given Uruguay the ticket to the knockout stages.
But also, Bielsa must command the generational change that is imposed on the Uruguayan national team. This Wednesday when it is officially presented at the Centenario Stadium, the coach will clarify the panorama. But in the Uruguayan press it is estimated that Diego Godín, Luis Suárez and Edinson Cavani -among others- will gradually leave space to Facundo Torres, Manuel Ugarte and Darwin Núñez, among others.
Luis Suárez and the scandal of Uruguay's last match in Qatar 2022, where he could not pass the first phase. Photo: Xinhua/Xin Yuewei.
El Loco arrives with his usual team that will have the Chilean Diego Reyes as first assistant, Pablo Quiroga and Lucas Oubiña (second and third); and from Spain he will have the support of Diego Bermúdez. On Uruguayan soil it will also have Magalí Conde for logistics; and when the team travels abroad the person in charge of that task will be the Spanish Sara Bouzas.
Beyond what Uruguayan coaches such as Jorge Fosatti or Martín Lasarte expressed who would have preferred a local coach at the head of the national team (Bielsa will be the second foreigner in history after Daniel Passarella, who commanded La Celeste between 1999 and 2001), in the streets of Montevideo the arrival of the Rosario awakens expectation, But they still look at him sideways. "As long as it's for the good of our national team, I'm going to support it," says Andrea, an employee of a restaurant in the Mercado del Puerto.
There is Marito, who claims to have seen Bielsa play in Buenos Aires: "He hit a lot", he limits himself to describing the 76-year-old man who waits for a boot or shoe with earth to be able to shine the footwear in a trade that no longer abounds. But, as is known, Montevideo seems to live encapsulated in time. Bielsa's football in the Uruguayan national team is what he needs, they believe, to revitalize his hierarchy on the continent and in the world: the sights are set on the 2026 World Cup, when Marcelo Bielsa accuses 71 almanacs. This Wednesday he will start his cycle and we will have to see if he can capture his idea, if Bielsa and the Uruguayans speak the same language or if he will need a translator as in France or England to line up boots and champions.
From Montevideo, special envoy
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